our own Ways, nor finding our own Pleasure,nor fpeaking our own Words; in a Word, if we make it our conftant Care and Business, to quit our felves like true Servants and Soldiers of Jefus Chrift; we fhall appear one Day with him in Glory and after having followed him here in denying our felves, and taking up our Crofs and doing his Will, we fhall fit down with him hereafter in endless Felicity: Which God grant of his infinite Mercy; thro' Jefus Chrift our Lord.

SERMON

SERMON III.

JOHN. XV. xiv.

Te are my friends, if ye do whatfoever I command you.

T

HE Evangelift, in Three whole Chapters together, gives us a particular Account, of the private Conferences that our Bleffed Lord had with his Difciples, not long before his Death, of which Difcourfes this Chapter is a part.

Among other important Matters, that he takes occafion to fpeak of, he recommends to them, the great Duty of Love to one another, and Obedience to the divine Commands, as we read a little before the Text: and the better to prepare them, to confider the unfpeakable Love, that himself fhortly defign'd to difcover,

and

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and make known to them, and to fix it the more firmly in their Minds; he affures them, That no Man can express a greater Act of Love to another, than to die for him: Greater love, fays he, hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. Verfe 13. this he himself was about to do for them; and therefore having faid this, he immediately calls them his Friends, giving them tacitly to understand, that they fhould receive the Benefits of that extraordinary Kindness, and continue to be his Friends, if they would keep his Commandments: Te are my friends, if ye do what foever I command you. In difcourfing on these Words I fhall confider thefe feveral Particulars.

First, The endearing Character given by our Lord to his Difciples; ye are my Friends.

Secondly, The Condition upon which that Title is founded; if ye do whatsoever I command you.

To which I fhall add,

Thirdly, The great Obligations that

lie on Chriftians, from that Title and Character. And,

Fourthly, The tranfcendent Rewards they shall receive, for their Fidelity and Obedience.

And First, I am to confider the endearing Character, given by our Lord to his Difciples; Te are my Friends. It is one of the greatest Inftances of Love, that can, in the ordinary Course of Life, be fhewn by one Man to another, to take him into a close and intimate Familiarity with himself; to make him acquainted with the ftate of his Concerns; to difcover his real good Affection for him by overt Actions, and his readiness, upon all fair occafions, to promote his Intereft. There is a lower and inferior kind of Love, commonly called Benevolence, whereby a Man is moved, to entertain kind and favourable Thoughts of another, and to speak well of him, and with his Profperity and Succefs, This is a fort

of

of Kindness indeed, that ufually cofts a Man nothing; a cheap and eafy kind of Love, and commonly met withal in the World, from People of good Breeding and Civility: but that noble and generous Affection, which we ftile Friendship, a thing much pretended to in the World, but very rarely to be found; that true Friendfhip, I fay, does imply a Delight and Complacency that one Man takes in another, and whereby he is moved to employ all his Power and Interest, for the Good and Benefit of his Friend. Now it will eafily appear from hence, that Chrift was their Friend upon feveral accounts.

First, In taking them into a familiar Acquaintance and Society with himfelf: for that he fhould pitch upon them to converfe with, who were Men of an ordinary Figure and Quality in the World; that he should make them his conftant Companions; his, who was the Son of God, the well-beloved of his Father; was fuch a diftinguishing Act of Love, as they could never have look'd for or deferved. And therefore he affures them, Verfe the 16th, Te have not chofen